S1: In November of 1969 , a small group of 20 San Diego State students joined together and formed KCR radio.
S2: From take two.
S3: Welcome to basement Beats , KCR Radio's deep dive into the San Diego sound. Each week we will bring you live sets and raw conversations with the local artists , pushing boundaries and turning up the volume on the city's underground music scene. This week , the souls ride the wave into the basement , bringing their signature surf rock sound. Join us as they perform a live set from our studio to your radio , and stick around for a one on one interview with the band. Now on to their performance. So.
S4: So. Based on Anton. And me , the temblor I. Might. Get. This is Emmy. I. Stole that to lie. Go get it. You. Know cheese by fiesta. I keep saying I was Fresca , conquista. Estado You do so I say. I love to compose , so. I. I want to say I'm picking pieces up from the mess you made. Oh , God. Please stop me. Don't ever speak. You know that you're as much a joke as me , but a much lighter. I put a muzzle , I put a muzzle , water. And much more water. I put the muzzle , I put them. All I want to say. I'm picking pieces up from the mess you made. It's like to die. When I. Was in water I said how much water I put on my heart. I put the rising water. I can't imagine what I can imagine. I'm gonna love you. Por qué tenemos? Hacerlo Q siente. Center ejemplo that de la la la la la la la. La la la la Say on my. Buddy. Neta. Dans ladrones. Persija. Lokomotiva. Nada. Viva 04.11. And the studio. These are more than enough. There's some good stuff on that I want. To calm down on the ground. Don't , cause I sing. Be kind to everything I see. But never die. Synchronous. Ladrones bacillus kino sepa nada. 04511. And those love God will tell you love. That there's a good chance. That all that I love. I don't want to go down. Goes down. I don't want to go down. Cause. I don't want to go down. Now. Shopping for a yarn and do it all again because no one ever sleeps anymore. Disconnect to leave. Cause I don't wanna see. I've always known how it always goes. That I'm yellow and never wanna I love. You too young. You snuck inside my head. That's why I never sleep anymore. But my tongue in cheek move blood out to my knees. Hey , baby , I got a broken heart. Man I'm yellow. You never know. That I'm yellow. They're coming by. No se. Cuanto mas tengo Megastar. The giant hands behind our backs and sing is pretty song. Tell us we're the only ones that they ever thought. I wish they would never. I wish you were a man without me I love you never. What? No man. I'm your love. You never know. That I've never loved you. Never enough. And I've. Never known. Thank you. This next one is called NYC. Lately I'm troubled. Trying to sleep. Tries for light to palm trees. To its train. You're insane I tried listening. I'm lost for words. But I like to speak. I don't want to be shy. When you leave me for New York. Pursuing heartbreaks , sweeping all under the carpet floor. I'll be teaching this day. And I hate it when you. Wake up so late. Sun setting on me. Lady Morrisey. Cause I want to sleep. I ain't got my shades on , Understand. All that they are. I don't want to be inside when you are leaving for New York. Porcelain heart breaks sweeping all under the carpet floor. This is a place that I hate. Where the. Light is me. Come down to the light. Let's see. Have you ever seen my art Museum. Right around the finish line. Around the page. Is Damon's original article. Remember , he was so sweet and broke his jealousy. I love you. I got a lot to. Do for. Sally at sunrise. Light leaks in my eyes. Misfits in the past. Walk home through the dark. I think I lost my way again. Now I'm sad to see you. Say hello again. And that's in me. I love you. I gotta love to go. I can't help you and I. He said , behold , many blessings. And I noted again for the Christmas , and I would ask for God in the light. It's my own device. I don't even try. My darling. It's true. Today I have to let you go. And I don't know if I want to. The better off , the worse. We were always a show. You look so pretty on the route 66. Oh , yeah. Killing him softly with the cherry red finish. Oh , yeah. She's my cherry. Playing over cherry. Red over I say. Over. And over. How I live with you. She's on my pillow. Cause I miss you. If they know the truth. Like a fool in the night I look for you. You look so pretty on her. And 66 eyes. Something to change on. You look for me on earth. 66 for you. You and your fleet. The chariot is for you. She's my chain. Praying. Over. And over. Every day. No one. Will. Ever do. These I shall reign over you that no one shall They over? Chase him over.
S5: Thank you.
S6: Hey , everybody , welcome to basement Beats. It is Sheridan , and I am here with the souls.
S7: Hey , hey. Hello.
S6: We are so happy to have you with us today. Um , so for the people out there that don't know who you are , could we maybe go down the line and say your name , your instrument , any fun fact you want?
S7: Yeah , I'm Brandon and I play a guitar and sing. And a fun fact about me is I have one arm shorter than the other. Oh , yeah?
S6: How does that affect.
S7: Your motorcycle accident?
S6: Oh , really?
S7: You know , it doesn't really affect what it does. I actually got a guitar that has , like , a smaller neck just for that , you guys. Oh my God , obviously. But yeah , that's me. That's my life. Hey , my name is Carlos. I do lead guitar for the solos. My fun fact , I guess , would be that , as Brandon always mentions , I have to cross the border every day.
S6: Every day. So?
S7: So? So. Yeah. Thank you. Brandon.
S8: That's not very fun. Oh.
S9: My name is Andrew and I play bass. A fun fact about me is I don't cross the border every day.
S6: All right , so.
S7: That is pretty fun. Yeah.
S8: Uh , my name is Mauro. I play the drums , and I am a cook as a as a day job. Really?
S6: Really? Yeah.
S8: Yeah. I spend all day just in the heat. Uh , Hotel Coronado. Oh , yeah.
S6: Way cool. Um , so who or what brought you guys together? How did you find each other? How did you form?
S8: It's that big guy.
S7: Over there I brought. I brought these boys together. Um , this , uh , the project started off kind of like a a small solo project for me. I was up in college , up in Utah. Oh. Uh , and , yeah , I moved down here to San Diego , like , three years ago. Four? Yeah. Almost three. A little more than three years ago. And I just needed people to play music with. And I found Mauro on IG. I was just scrolling through IG , you know , stalking drummers. And I DM'd him shamelessly , dude. And he immediately replied , he was like. He was like , nice. Sounds really nice , guys. And like , thinking it was a band and it was just me. Oh , okay. Class and Andrew came in , right? Are you good?
S9: Oh , yeah. So I saw , like , motto was playing with Brandon , and we were in a different band before.
S6: Oh , together? Yeah.
S9: Yeah. What band? Um , it's called disco. The DSO.
S6: Oh , fun. Cool.
S9: Cool. Yeah. And then we were in that band , and then , uh , then Brandon put out nice ad. That was one of our singles. And then I really liked it. It was before I joined the band. So then I hit up Mauro and I was like , oh , if you guys need a bassist , I'd be really down to join. Yeah , and then it just worked out for me. Wait.
S6: Wait. Perfect. And then.
S7: And then that's where I come in. Uh , all I received was a DM from Andrew. He's like , hey , uh , we're looking for a lead guitarist last minute. We have a show in , like , five days. We want to. We're like. Oh.
S6: Oh.
S7: My God , you want to learn like , these ten songs? And I'm like , sure. I mean , I listen to every single one. We're very cool. Yeah. Um , they were cool. They were cool. No , no , I really I really liked them. Yeah , we're really good. But , um , the show ended up getting canceled. Oh , but I guess they they liked how I played , so I ended up staying. No way. Um , I know how Andrew was telling Brandon how he knows me because of this other project I used to be a part of. So I kind of gave him the initiative to to DM me.
S9: Yeah , just like no different people from the scene. Like in different. Bands.
S6: Bands. Yeah.
S9: Yeah. Yeah , yeah.
S7: And he was like , we got to get this guy , he's Latino. And we were like , yeah , there you go. Keep it going.
S6: So the name , the souls , how did you guys decide on that? And actually how did you decide on your like overall sound. Was it pretty? Like everyone was into the same thing. Did take some convincing.
S7: I think so. The souls , actually , I don't remember too clearly where it came from because it was like it was like all me at the beginning. And I think it was like I was jamming with this one guy and he was like , we should name the band because this was before them , obviously. And we were like , hey , we should start a band. We should name it console. Oh , and I was like , oh , that's cool. And then , um , but I think I just always had the name , like written down in a note somewhere , like The Souls. Yeah. It's like sun in Spanish. Yeah , yeah. And I always wanted like a , the name because all like , so some of my favorite bands have like the. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. So yeah.
S7: And yeah that's where it came from. And then like the musical influence and the sound has stemmed um , now like that we're all together. All of our , I guess likes kind of mix into the type of music we're making currently , stuff that will be released probably by the time this , um , interview comes out. Awesome. Um , but yeah , like the the stuff we have out now has just been mainly kind of my influences. I'd say in , um , a lot of like surf punk. Yeah , just a lot of San Diego bands.
S6: Yeah , yeah. Like what? Like what are some of the influences? Definitely.
S7: Definitely. Like. Like waves. I've always loved waves. Uh , the frights. Um , uh , beach goons , you know , just a bunch of that good old surf punk , you know? Yeah. Um. But. Yeah. Awesome.
S6: Awesome.
S7: Do you guys have any input? I guess , um , the stuff we're making now pretty much , uh.
S10: The most most of the stuff that I that's out right now is usually just Brandon's influence. But as of right now , as of right now , we do have , like , a ton of unreleased stuff that is pretty much all of our , um , likes together. Everyone contributed to it. Cool , cool. We're really excited to have that out , uh , in a couple of months. Yeah , hopefully.
S6: Yeah , that'll be really cool to kind of hear the the full Influence of Everything album. Yeah.
S10: Yeah. By this year. Okay.
S6: Okay. Okay.
S10: Okay.
S6: I'll have to keep an eye out for that debut. Debut. Anything to add drum influences?
S8: Um , man , I'm just trying to enjoy it. Yeah. You know , I've been playing music for a little while. Like , almost next year's gonna be ten years playing in a local scene. Wow. And so I've been trying to really put it into perspective. Like how I see myself as a as a drummer , as a performer. And I'm trying to really just enjoy it right now because I've realized it's a privilege to be able to perform and write music and have fun with my friends.
S6: Yeah , I love that. Speaking of writing music , so a lot of your songs are Spanish and English. I was kind of wondering , like , do you start off writing in Spanish? Translate some to English , vice versa. Like how's that?
S7: That's a cool question. Um , for like most of the songs like that are released right now. Um , most of them kind of like came really quick. I like saying , like , they fell out of the sky because , like , they were just super , super easy to write. There are like a couple that are unreleased that we've I've thought about them and have been. Yeah , just more thoughtful on the lyrics as far as , like the Spanish stuff goes. Um , yeah , that just naturally comes to. It's like I don't , um , uh , what? Purposefully like , make it Spanish. Sometimes it just comes out Spanish.
S6: It's just like , interesting.
S7: Really organic. It's really weird.
S8: There's some times that what you're trying to say in your head just makes more sense in Spanish. Like , it's it's. Imagine having double your vocabulary , right? Yeah.
S6: Yeah. And then certain words sound better at certain moment. Like it's really cool. I to think about like , linguistics , I guess of it all.
S7: But it's more , it's more poetic. So you get like a little more like poetic and like. Because in English , if you say some stuff , it's like kind of cringey , but in Spanish , right? Right.
S6: Romantic and like , certain phrases are like super cheesy in one language , but like super cool and others , you know.
S7: Spanish is cool. Cool.
S6: Cool.
S7: Carlos , like all of you guys have helped me out , like write some of the new stuff. Uh , Carlos has definitely , like , been a huge help in writing in Spanish , too. He has some really great ideas as well. Awesome.
S6: Awesome.
S7: Andrew , too.
S10: Yeah , yeah.
S6: Oh , yeah. Do you want more to add? Oh , okay. Okay. So I have to ask. Do you guys have a standout show? A show you've played that just had the best energy or maybe venue or anything that's like. That was. That was crazy. Lit movie? Yeah.
S10: Yeah. For sure. Our most recent festival we played are there in Santa Ana. Happy deps.
S6: Oh , yeah.
S10: Happy three. Happy dusty. Yeah. Shout out to Ed. Shout out to the high kerbs.
S7: Dive time.
S10: All the homies. Um , yes for sure.
S8: Is our debut performance of our latest single. What do you say doing that? Well.
S10: Well.
S7: That's our boys. Our boys?
S10: No , no , I know Brian. What do you say? Sometimes I feel like the.
S7: Oh , yeah , the black goose , our boy , Brian Ryan. Yeah. The happy dance has been by far like our best show. And just the funnest. It was just a bunch of crazy. It was cool because it was a lot of , like , Chicano kids. Um. Which was , I don't know , it's just cool to see , like , you know , our people and kind of the representation of culture. And then also just a bunch of people just fly it off the stage.
S6: Awesome , awesome.
S7: I like people singing our songs too. That's the. That was crazy too. It's , uh. It's always fun to play like shows. And people like singing your songs. Like word for word. You're like , oh , dang.
S6: Uh , thank you so much for coming in. It was a pleasure meeting you all. Want to plug your social media? Anything? Last notes to the people? Yeah.
S7: Yeah. Follow us on Instagram at the Souls Band. Uh , that's socials. And , uh , yeah , we love y'all. Crazy.
S11: Crazy. Ah. With another heavy hit.
S3: That's a wrap on this week's Basement Beats. I'm your host , Sheridan Koenig. Sami Thomas is our producer. Ruchi Shroff and Nolan Conrad are our recording , mixing , and mastering engineers. Kayla Parra is our audio editor and sound designer. The theme is created by Mouton. If you liked what you heard , find the full session and interview on our website , KCRW Edu. See you next week with more local music and fresh voices.
